Can't Let Associations Bring Me Down
by Eeveelivesprite
Summary: Raychael AU Prompt: High school AU characters stuck working together on a project When Ray becomes lab partners with the infamous school bully his life is crumbling down. He decides, since Michael Vincent Jones already kicked his ass a year ago what more does he have to lose? So Ray tries to piss Michael off, but to his surprise, something deeper is going on than just anger issues.
1. Enter: Michael -Fucking- Vincent Jones

** AU PROMPT: HIGH SCHOOL AU, CHARACTERS STUCK WORKING TOGETHER ON A PROJECT.**  
Ray Narvaez Jr. sat in the dark science classroom, as the teacher flashed something else up on the projector. A table or something, Ray didn't really know, he'd been sleeping this entire class period. Ray simply shrugged and went back to lying his head on his desk.  
"Ray!" A high-pitched voice with a recognizable English draw yanked him out of his sleep. "Aren't you worried about working with him?"  
That got Ray's attention, he looked up at the board to try to see what the actual hell Gavin was talking about. When he did, his entire world crumbled. The table that the teacher flashed up? Fucking lab partner assignments. He was lab partners with Michael Fucking Vincent Jones. Goddamnit.  
Michael -Fucking- Vincent Jones, or more commonly referred to as 'Michael' was notorious for being the school's single-handedly most asshole student that anyone had ever seen. If it weren't for his straight A's and high testing scores, he'd probably have been expelled four times over, Ray knows this much. Obviously choosing four times refers to the 'four times Michael nearly killed someone' or 'Mx4' as they liked to call it around school. It was probably the biggest 'school event' that ever happened, which includes both Gavin and Ray totally making out at the dance, which Ray likes to state absolutely did NOT happen, Lindsay setting fire to her food in the cafeteria, which Ray didn't even know was possible, and Ryan, who was outside during break and somehow got a cow to follow him into the school, who he deemed 'Edgar' (Afterwards Edgar walked out of the school and fell into the ditch around the back of the building). The only reason Ray would think that was actually true about Michael is because he had been the second person Michael 'nearly killed', yep, there he was, a victim. There were only two left in the school, counting him, as the others had better fucking parents that didn't make them try to live at a school where their grave was almost dug at.  
"Fuck no!" Ray heard a voice yell from across the room, not needing to look twice to figure out who would have the balls to cuss in front of the teacher, Mr. Burns. "If I'm working with that prick, Barbara and Lindsay can't work together, they're best friends and it isn't fucking fair."  
Mr. Burns shrugged at Michael, he could send Michael to the office for excessive swearing again, but he really didn't see any point as obviously his parents didn't care if he cussed out his teachers at school. Ray suddenly felt his face light up as everyone was looking at him, some sympathetically, and some comically. Only fitting a victim gets paired with Michael Fucking Jones, right? At least he won't try to kill you again... probably.  
"The lab partners are chosen at random, and friendships or friendships separated is completely coincidental." Mr. Burns says finally, giving Michael that 'Are-you-done?' look that teachers usually pair with the words, 'I'll wait' as in 'I'll wait until you stop talking and if you don't I'm going to kill you all.'. Yet Michael's face scrunched up even tighter, making some weird expression of confusion and anger all in one and Ray didn't know if it was about him or what Mr. Burns had said but he found out as soon as Michael responded.  
"How do you fucking choose at random, you know everyone in the god damn class, you obviously pair up the good students with their friends." Michael spat, turning to look at Ray, who responded with an exaggerated, defensive, "Hey!" and clasped his hand over his heart.  
"Michael, after all we've been through." Ray started to fake cry a little, earning some laughs from the classroom. Ray was a people pleaser, and a comedian. Michael's eyes went the most narrow he'd ever seen, and he could tell Michael was pissed, but hey, what's new? He was always pissed.  
"The school hires a magician, and we pay him two-hundred dollars to draw your names out of hat and pair you guys up." Mr. Burns says. "His name is Deal Withyour Placement, he's great at parties." Michael scoffed as he looked back over at Ray with dead eyes.  
Ray decided to himself that if he was going to have to work with an asshole he didn't exactly have to be all too kind about it. He grasped his tan backpack, the binder from his desk, and his jacket which he had slew on the back of his chair halfway through the class period; and then walked over to the empty seat next to Michael, who was now staring at him with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, a look that completely read 'what the actual fuck are you doing'. There was no rule that you had to sit with your lab partner for anything except lab days, so everyone in the class was incredibly shocked that Ray actually took the courage to get up. A couple of kids were fake praying for Ray as his gait increased. For the first time in forever, Michael was silent. Michael was silent as Ray pulled out the chair next to him and slid down in it. Michael was silent as Ray scooted the desk over so his and Michael's were touching. Michael was even silent as Ray pulled his arm around Michael's shoulder pulling him closer as Ray leaned his head onto Michael's shoulders, sarcastically smiling, saying "Well, looks like we gotta stick together now, Mikey-boy." and earning another laugh from the class. Michael was silent for most of the class actually, but Ray looked back at him occasionally, and he was always staring at him. 'He's pretty fucking strange.' Ray thought to himself, looking back at the front of the room. Eventually, after what felt like forever, the bell rang, and as Ray got up he could feel a hand latch onto his wrist, hard.  
He heard shuffling as Michael got to his feet, and Ray looked at him, for once not being able to read the look on Michael's face. It was something less than rage, maybe general annoyance? Michael took a breath, before leaning towards Ray, extremely close. When their foreheads were only about an inch apart, Michael's eyes looked into his like a wolf to prey. "Listen very closely, Mr. Narvaez," Michael started, calm and collected, and for a second Ray contemplated why he would know his last name after kicking his ass a year ago, before he realized last names were shown on the lab arrangements. "This," He moved his hand in a circular motion, making sure Ray knew he was talking about all of science class. "This does NOT make us friends under any circumstances." Michael let go of Ray's wrist, reaching into his pocket. "That being said, I don't want a shitty grade because you don't know how to do your part of conjoined work, so here." Ray looked at the little slip of paper down in his hands, it had a short seven digit code on it, written in semi-neat handwriting. He looked up at Michael again. "It's my number, asshole." Michael smirked a little before grabbing his blood-red backpack off of the floor. "Text me before you lose it, moron." He muttered before walking out of the science class, Ray inhaled deeply. This semester was going to be long.


	2. The End Is Silent

Ray swerved around the hall to avoid encountering anyone who was in his science class, he really wasn't in the mood for discussion about what just happened, except that last part of Michael giving his phone number away which he thoroughly wanted to discuss with Gavin, or another one of his comrades. Ray silently thanked himself that nobody turned around and saw what happened in the past two minutes, and even more that Mr. Burns was distracted during the whole thing. Mr. Burns was the type of teacher you didn't want to have a personal conversation with, he was more like their other teacher, Mr. Sorola, they were extremely comical, but you didn't really want them to know about your personal life.  
Ray walked up to the familiar dark blue metal of his locker and turned the dial around a full three times before starting to enter his combination. He pulled out his brown history book and opened his backpack, sliding it in next to his science spiral. He grabbed his science book and was about to stick it back into his locker when a voice called out his name from behind, causing him to drop the book on the tiled floor.  
"Goddamnit Geoff." Ray muttered, leaning down to pick up his book before putting it in his locker and swiftly shutting it.  
"What's up my hispanic friend?" Geoff smiled, walking up to the next locker over to the right, turning the dial quickly and flinging it open. Ray raised an eyebrow, that wasn't his locker.  
"Is there a reason you're going through Ryan's locker?" Ray asked calmly, swinging his backpack over his shoulder.  
"He took my goddamn pencil yesterday and didn't give it back." Geoff muttered, his smile disappearing as he started emptying the locker contents onto the floor, random passersby whispered to themselves at the sight.  
"Pencil cup is on the door." Ray said, chuckling a bit. Ryan had so many things magnetized to his locker door, it was easy to miss.  
"Wha- Oh, thanks Ray." Geoff said grabbing every pencil out of the pencil cup and shoved it into the pocket of his black pull-over hoodie.  
"How many pencils did he borrow Geoff?" Ray said, looking at all the discarded textbooks and notebooks covering the floor.  
"Ah, one, but that fucker needs to be taught a lesson. So what class are you going to?"  
"It's the second semester Geoff, you should know this by now." Ray scoffed, walking over to Geoff and kicking Ryan's locker shut, before turning and walking down the hall with Geoff following.  
"Hey, I can't keep up with five goddamn schedules, okay?" Geoff smiled defensively, pushing Ray with his left hand, making him run into lockers on the other side of the locker bay.  
"I only asked you to keep track of mine." Ray laughed, pushing Geoff back in response. "I'm going to history."  
"Man, I'm going to science." Geoff groaned, running his hand back through his hair. "I hate that fucking class."  
"Woah, heads up, new lab partner assignments today." Ray said, recalling the events that happened not even ten minutes ago.  
"What, why?" Geoff asked, looking somewhat concerned.  
Ray shrugged. "Second semester I guess, need new partners."  
Geoff sighed, muttering 'goddamnit' under his breath before looking back at Ray. "Who'd you get?" Ray stopped walking for a second and Geoff, who was walking a bit behind him and to his right, almost ran into him. "Woah Ray, jesus! Don't do that to a guy." He walked up next to him and tapped Ray on the shoulder a few times before Ray sighed, looked to the side and kept walking forwards. Geoff shrugged and jogged about two feet to catch up to him.  
"Michael." Ray muttered kicking the ground in front of him and shoving his hands into the pockets of his unzipped jacket.  
"No way." Geoff said, his voice suddenly turning deathly serious. "No fucking way."  
"Fucking way." Ray said, pulling one hand out of his pocket to fix his glasses, which were sliding off of his nose.  
"Did you tell Mr. Burns he's out of his fucking mind?" Geoff asked, his voice rising with obvious anger. Ray was silent as he looked at the ground, Geoff spoke up again. "You DID say something right?" Ray shrugged, he didn't expect Geoff to be the one who got worked up over it, but he also didn't know how to respond just yet, and Ray didn't even know what to think of himself. Here's the things he actually knew about Michael,

1. He throws a mean punch  
2. He is detached from society  
3. He gave Ray his phone number

if it weren't for that last one Ray would've written his off as a complete asshole, but if Michael really hated Ray as much as he originally thought, why would he give him his number. Something in Ray's equation wasn't adding up, he shook his head, telling himself he was definitely missing some pieces to the puzzle. "Ray!" Ray looked back up at Geoff. "You said SOMETHING, I know you did, tell me you did!"  
Ray was silent for a moment, before he replied. "Michael did."  
"What?" Geoff asked raising his eyebrows and staring at Ray, awaiting an answer.  
"Oh hey, there's my classroom." Ray said, and he turned to walk into the open door of his history class.  
"Ray!" Geoff yelled, about to follow him in when to one minute bell rang loudly over the intercom. "This isn't over Ray!" Geoff yelled before running off to his class.  
Ray pulled out his chair near the back of the room, next to his British pal.  
"Ray! We only have two classes together and you were damn near late to one of them. We just came from the same class Ray!" Gavin emphasised the word 'same' as he drew out his sentence.  
"Sorry, yeah, I ran into Geoff in the hall." Ray said pulling out his history book and throwing it onto his desk.  
"What?" Gavin paused a moment. "He goes to science right after us, it's impossible to see him in the hall."  
"He came to break into Ryan's locked and steal all his shit." Ray smirked, zipping up his jacket as he was starting to feel cold in history class. Actually, history class was the only reason he brought a fucking jacket in the first place. Mrs. Eberle always kept her room freezing, nobody dared to ask why, but just brought coats to deal with it.  
"Why's that? Don't tell me Ryan borrowed something of his again." Gavin rolled his eyes, this sort of thing had happened on more than one occasion, and Gavin wasn't sure if he was sick of it or loved it.  
Ray tapped the tip of his nose, smiling. "Right on the money, Vav."  
Gavin smiled for a second, then frowned. "So, Michael huh. That's a load of bollocks, that is, real sorry about that."  
Ray shrugged. "I think... I think it'll be okay."  
"What makes you so sure?" Gavin asked, as Mrs. Eberle walked to the front of the classroom.  
"Alright class, it's Friday, so here's what we're going to do, read chapters two through four, and afterwards answer the questions in the back in groups of two or three. It's a nice simple day and I think this'll be good since it is the start of the new semester and all." Mrs. Eberle smiled, and walked back to her desk.  
Ray watched as a few kids immediately slammed their books shut and went to sit with their friends, before turning to Gavin. "He um... He gave me his number." Ray said, scratching absently at the side of his face.  
"He... what?" Gavin asked, probably wondering if he heard his Puerto Rican friend correctly.  
"He gave me his number." Ray said, this time a bit stronger, as he moved his hand back into his pocket.  
"He... He gave you his-" Gavin started, slowly, before Ray interrupted  
"Number, yes."  
Gavin was quiet for a moment, looking at Ray with the most confused look he had since Ray told him he had over 300K gamerscore on Xbox and Gavin questioned what Ray actually did with his life outside of school. Eventually he spoke up. "What are you going to do about it?"  
Ray paused, looking back at what Michael said 'Text me before you lose it, moron.'. Ray flinched so hard he nearly fell out of his chair. "Wait, did he mean text him right away or when I got home?" Ray's muttered to himself. "Shit okay I'll just text him now." Ray pulled out his phone and then paused. "Wait what if he's in class. Is his phone on silent? Shit..." Ray shook his head quietly, unaware that Gavin was watching him, giving him the weirdest look. "Damn I'll just text him." Ray pulled out the piece of paper with Michael's number and added it to his contacts before typing up his message.  
{Damn, lost your number, gonna need it again. -Ray}  
Ray sighed, turning his phone volume all the way down until it put itself on vibrate and slipping it back into his pocket.  
"What was that?" Gavin asked, which Ray figured was a better question than 'Are you okay?' but still bothered him a bit due to word choice.  
"He told me to text him before I lost his number." Ray replied, shrugging.  
"Why are you doing this to yourself Ray?" Gavin sighed. "You're setting yourself up to end up pissing him off, and once he blows his top it's like a bloody volcanic eruption."  
"I... I think there's a reason he gave me his number that I'm not getting." Ray admitted, turning towards Gavin for some kind of reassurance, but all he got was more questioning.  
"Well what did he say when he gave it to you?" Gavin asked.  
"That he didn't want to fail because of me." Ray answered, closing the history book he had open as he obviously wasn't going to be doing any of that in this class period. More homework because Gavin David Free wanted to talk about the school bully. Great.  
"Why do you think it isn't just that?" Gavin questioned, copying Ray's action of closing his history book.  
"I'm not sure, maybe because he feels sorry for kicking my ass and wants to be friends?" Ray said sarcastically, which Gavin obviously didn't pick up on, played along, or ignored all together.  
"Sounds like wishful thinking to me, chap." He said solemnly, shaking his head.  
"Yeah, mayb-" Ray was about to say, but a low rumble went off and Ray pulled his phone out of his pocket. Gavin peered over his shoulder and read with him.  
{Fuck, that'll take a while, seeing as it's the end of the day. Better luck next time asshole. -MJ, as if you didn't fucking know that.}  
Ray was about to respond, as another text flashed onto the screen, followed by the phone vibrating in his hand.  
{Also, why the hell did you sit next to me? You realize you only have to put up with my bullshit on lab days, right? No need to torture yourself on regular days, sit with your friend. -MJ}  
Ray looked up at Gavin, who simply shrugged, before he texted back.  
{Because, if I don't, how am I going to become your one and only friend? -Ray}  
{... -MJ}  
Michael Fucking Vincent Jones wasn't at school the next day.


End file.
